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Re: The Official 2008 Stanley Cup Playoffs Thread

My apologies to all of the Pen fans out there. You guys had a great season... the more experience team won. You guys have a great young team that will be competing for several years to come. Congrats on a wonderful season.

Re: The Official 2008 Stanley Cup Playoffs Thread

Originally Posted by asiansteel

My apologies to all of the Pen fans out there. You guys had a great season... the more experience team won. You guys have a great young team that will be competing for several years to come. Congrats on a wonderful season.

Yes,it was a great run,but I don't know how much we can compete in the coming years.We have a TON of FA's coming up.It sure will be an interesting offseason.

Re: The Official 2008 Stanley Cup Playoffs Thread

a depressing loss for sure, but now the question is can this team stay intact? i would love to see hossa stay, but shedding the "playoff choker" label will merit him a ton of money on the open marker...will malone take 5 mill.+ to leave, or will he take around 3 mill. and stay? will orpik stay or go?

it'll be an interesting off season...

i would love to see our main core of guys: sid, malkin, fleury, staal, etc...stay together for a long, long time...but we'll see. hossa is 30 and hopefully he realizes his best chance to drink from the stanley cup is in pittsburgh...

new season starts in 4 months....thank God for the steelers (and pirates for me)

Re: The Official 2008 Stanley Cup Playoffs Thread

But it was a fabulous season for the Pens. I feel that they are at least a year ahead of where I figured they would be at the start of the season.

I wanted to start somewhere, but I need to run a quick errand (life break). I will finish with Part II in a little while (i.e: I'll be back and you've been warned )

Back from reality.

The Pens were a victim in this series of their own slow start. I felt that if they were to have any chance, they'd have to win one of the first two games. That didn't happen.

At that point, I figured the Pens goose was cooked. The Wings were and are an impressive team and they were very good in this series.

Therefore, I watched as the Wings lifted the Cup last night after winning the series. The funny thing is that I grew up listening to the Wings when they were on WJR as I grew up. But I never became a fan and I still am not. But watching reminded me of what a great tradition skating the Cup really is and how it will be extra special in the next couple years when the Pens get their chance.

The Pens/Wings series was the best final series since the lockout ended. The Pens have some tactical things to do to ensure a successful future Cup run. One thing that was evident in this series is that the Wings were prepared in a way many teams don't prepare: they beat a team who was equal in most categories, but not in conditioning. All the talk about the Wings being older with more tired legs was a lot of hooey. The Wings knew an innate secret about superior athletes: there are few differences between great teams, but conditioning is the thing that puts the great ones on top.

The Pens simply ran out of gas. They were a much younger team that was arguably fresh. But they weren't quite prepared to play 20+ games in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. That will have to change if the Pens are ever to be successful enough to win in the finals.

Over the next couple years, there are three players who must be locked up to ensure a long period of success for the Pens:

Sidney Crosby
Geno Malkin
Marc-Andre Fleury

The others who come aboard to compliment this trio can't be just anybody. They need to have a good mix of experience and raw talent to set the Pens apart from the crowd. The Wings had Zetterberg, Datsyuk and Lidstrom and the rest of the club had a great mix to compliment this trio. The Pens are close to doing this now, but the FO must do the balancing act to keep the Big Three and stay under the salary cap. This is the hard part. Hopefully, Shero and company can dance the high wire without falling.

I was proud to see the Pens do as well as they did in 2007-2008. They should be back to the finals at least a couple of times in the next five years if the cards are played right. Hopefully, they can keep the puck in sight and not have it squeeze out of their @$$ next time. FWIW, MAF will probably get a chance to skate the Cup at some point for the Pens...but he will never live down that goal. Had that goal not happened at such a crucial time, it would have been absolutely hilarious.

So there you have it. Four months of rest before the next NHL season. And to our dear friend AS: give the Pens a try. They will be on NBC and Versus a lot next season. Watch the games, get to know the sport and get on board for the Pens Big Win. I think you'll find you'll like it!

Re: The Official 2008 Stanley Cup Playoffs Thread

Originally Posted by buckeyehoppy

Originally Posted by buckeyehoppy

One thing that was evident in this series is that the Wings were prepared in a way many teams don't prepare: they beat a team who was equal in most categories, but not in conditioning. All the talk about the Wings being older with more tired legs was a lot of hooey. The Wings knew an innate secret about superior athletes: there are few differences between great teams, but conditioning is the thing that puts the great ones on top.

The Pens simply ran out of gas. They were a much younger team that was arguably fresh. But they weren't quite prepared to play 20+ games in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. That will have to change if the Pens are ever to be successful enough to win in the finals.

I think this is similar to hitting the rookie wall in football. Although the incoming college guys have fresher legs than veterans who have been in the league for a decade or more, college guys are used to playing a abbreviated scheduled compared to what they will face in the pros (4 preseason games, 16 regular games, and then possibly the playoffs as well). In hockey, the young Pens were used to having their season end in early April, not early June. Even though they are younger, they simply weren't used to those extra two months of hockey after an already grueling regular season. Their raw talent helped them through the Eastern conference playoffs, and they showed some grit and determination in the final, but you could tell that many of them were giving valient effort while obviously running on fumes.

They learned from the experience of getting swept by Ottawa in the first round last year, and hopefully they can learn from this defeat in the finals for next year. Remember, Gretzky's Oilers got swept by the Islanders in their first trip to the finals before coming back and starting a new dynasty. It looked like we could get swept after those first two whitewashes in Detroit, but you've got to admire the guys for hanging in there and not rolling over and dying. If they are able to keep most of this core together, we can look forward to another great run next year and beyond.